People v. Sorto case is dismissed

Case dismissed was the reult of a case I just finished the criminal case of the People v. Sorto case in the West Justice Center which was dismissed. My client was falsely charged with Battery on a Police Officer and 3 counts of interfering with 3 Costa Mesa Police Officers. The case was sent out for trial. Prior to the commencement of trial and motion to suppress illegally seized evidence was heard by Judge Kreber-Varipapa in W17. One might hope that with the current scandal with informants and discovery that the OCDA’s Office would be training their new DA’s extensively on discovery and other basics. As we started the motion it became apparent the assigned prosecutor knew virtually NOTHING about criminal law. According to her, neither observations nor statements could be suppressed in a 1538.5 motion. She still didn’t get it after the judge disabused her of that notion. The motion involved 4 officers who testified in the hearing. She proceeded to discuss the facts and reports with several of the cops with no investigator present. After the officers testified they had discussed the case and their reports with her, I demanded she produce written reports citing Roland v. Sup.Crt. She stated she was an officer of the court and she knew her discovery obligations. Of course she had never heard of it. After reading it she said it was a defense case and didn’t apply to the DA. One of the officers wrote NO report so she also discussed what he witnessed. She brought in case law on Brady saying that controlled her discovery obligations, and there was nothing inconsistent with their reports, so nothing to disclose, I read 1054.7 regarding witness statements and she still didn’t get it. Finally the court ordered her to provide a written statement to me. ALL of her cops lied on the witness stand, which of course made her a witness to perjury as they had reaffirmed their false police reports with her when she was interviewing them before and during the hearing. When the last of the 4 cops was testifying, I pulled out a DVAR video obtained in discovery which impeached all of the officers, she said “I object, I have never seen that before.” She then tried to keep out the DVAR on foundational grounds. When that didn’t work, she argued that the court should believe the lying police officers and not the video that showed they were all lying. If that is the training they are getting after the revelations of Dekraai, we should all continue to be outraged. The court granted the motion in part, which resulted in the OCDA’s Office stating “they were unable to proceed” which resulted in the dismissal of the case.